New Noise
Anyone who has ever had a foray in music, however brief, will testify that all the grand ideas you have in your head; the catchy hooks, clever lyrics, the brilliant little flourishes and that eye watering middle-eight that came to you in a dream - seldom make it out of that little brain box of yours.
What many do not appreciate is that creating something wholly original is bloody hard work. You soon come to realise that little hook you were so proud of was from a little known Nirvana b-side and that clever play-on-words is ripped right from a Pavement single, so all those grand ideas come to nothing as they were never yours to begin with.
There is a fair degree of fearlessness that comes with making music, not only in regards to putting everything on the line for others to judge, but to come up with something new or different or better than what has come before. For those of a nervous disposition or frightened of rejection and ridicule music is a bad career option.
Luckily, there are bands with an enviably fearless approach to making music and Hammer No More the Fingers are no exception. Taking notes from 90’s US indie-rock, but creating a sound of their own, new single ‘Shutterbug’ breezes along effortlessly. All angular guitars and swooning melody swathed in effervescent energy, it is a powerhouse of a single. Perhaps it is because the band have been playing together for several years, they started playing together in 1994, when they were 10 that everything sounds so assured and solid.
Listening to ‘Shutterbug’ is very much like listening to the corpse on indie-rock being revived only for its body to be better, stronger. You feel like running around cackling “It’s alive! It’s alive!” like some delirious Doctor Frankenstein because this type of confident, innovative sound has been absent for some time.
Already touted by Spin.com and Sterogum as one’s to watch for 2010 and rightfully so, as if ‘Shutterbug’ is an indication of what it to come, we should expect great things from this North Carolina trio's upcoming album.